The Liberty Hurricanes began their season on Dec. 6 against a challenging Stroudsburg team, and one week later, faced perhaps a bigger challenge against the Easton Red Rovers last Friday.

"The whole team knew it would be a good game," said Hurricane guard, Taysia Snead.

In the end, it was the Red Rovers who prevailed, 45-39.

With a six point deficit at the end of the first quarter, the Hurricanes came back pushing the tempo in the second quarter. A huge block by Snead that landed in Kaylin West's hands was the start of a momentum shift for Liberty. In addition, Coach Becky Soto alternated Snead and Cailey Sanchez in and out of the game, both strong defenders who never hesitate to attempt to force turnovers. Liberty center, Kristina Polak, also began to make her presence known on the inside, scoring six points, and putting the Hurricanes ahead 19-18.

At halftime, Liberty trailed by two points, but fell back by six points in the third quarter when Soto called a timeout. The Hurricanes returned to the court, earning those six points back on baskets by Torie Zerbe, Madison Capuano, and Polak, and trailed by two points heading into the fourth quarter.

Intensity picked up on both sides during the last eight minutes, and Capuano and Zerbe scored back-to-back threes, but Snead was in foul trouble, and both teams were getting ahead of themselves, causing several loose balls and pileups on the floor. When Easton took a three-point lead within the final three minutes, the Red Rovers chose to play keep away.

Snead said, "It was difficult to anticipate the pass, especially because I had four fouls."

Liberty called timeout three times in the final minutes, but Snead felt the Hurricanes lost focus at the end.

Polak felt that their timing was to blame.

"Every time we kept passing, we got there too late. We needed to take our time with passes and shots," she said.

Also last week, Freedom defeated Dieruff, 52-49, and Bethlehem Catholic defeated Allen, 68-23.